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How I adjusted an IS20 WG with Cobb AP

PerceivedShift

Autocross Champion
Location
Virginia
Just installed my EQT Vortex earlier this week. Everything went great on startup, no leaks or errors, and the turbo seems happy in its new home. My wastegate wasn't happy about its new home on this weird thing from EQT though. I did my best to adjust the IS20 WG on the bench with my meter, full closed....3.6v. Sweet. Installed on the car? I saw 2.6v at idle. What the heck. To make matters more complicated, once I loaded my EQT, the "charge pressure actuator, acknowledgement" value in OBDeleven went missing. What I found was the value came back when I loaded my old Stratified tune. @Ed @ EQT any ideas why this might be the case? After a few hours of fiddling with the actuator rod, reading info on these forums....etc I took a break for a few days as I had some things to take care of, I just kept the car out of boost. If I did push a little boost the EPC light would turn on and my wastegate would open and sit at 0.5v. Though, yesterday I noticed that when I keyed the car off the WG would close and I'd see the "idle voltage" of 2.6v briefly on the Cobb AP before it shutdown. Interesting.

With this in mind today I knew my closed stop voltage was 2.6v currently. Too low, in order to push the WG closed I knew I needed to screw the rod counter-clockwise. (or rotate wrench towards me) If the voltage reading was above 3.6-3.8v I would have needed to screw the rod clock-wise. (or rotate wrench away from me)

To find your WG closed voltage key-on and and set one of your gauges to "Turbine Actuator Voltage", the voltage will read low, as the WG is not closed or open.

Key-off your car and shortly before Cobb powers off (If you have it enabled) you will see the closed voltage. Here you can see my WG closed voltage is sitting at 3.72v (Note: This is video was recorded AFTER I completed the adjustment) as the WG closes on power-down for a brief moment:

(Pay no attention to the voltage that comes after, in this case 3.29v in the video, we don't care about this reading)

Take note of that closed voltage, when I started this process I was at 2.6v when I keyed the car off.

Grab the smallest 10mm wrench you have, it makes loosening and tightening the WG nut that much easier under the downpipe:

2022-03-11 17.59.30.jpeg


Loosen the nut...

In my case since I was sitting at 2.6v, I needed to lengthen the WG rod to increase my closed voltage with a target of 3.6v-3.8v by turning it counter-clockwise. If my closed voltage was above 3.8v I would need to shorten the WG rod by turning it clockwise.

So after turning the rod counter-clockwise at about one turn at a time, and keying the car on then off between each turn while watching the voltage on Cobb AP, I quickly hit my target of 3.6-3.8v in about 5 minutes.

Made this in hopes it might help understanding which direction to go:

IS 20 WG adjustment.JPG


Tighten the nut

Ran the Waste gate adaptation command on Cobb AP

Not required, but I checked the WG position open and closed in OBD11, 3.7 and 0.7v, huh:

2022-03-11 17.26.26.jpeg


Fired up the car to check the WG idle voltage.

Boom. 3.66v at idle:

2022-03-11 17.35.57.jpeg


But can I finally build boost with no EPC light?

YEEEEEESSSSSS, yes I can. Is it good now? I think so...time will tell I guess...really wanted to throw this here while fresh in my head.

Perhaps so long as you have a Cobb AP you can calibrate your IS20 WG without OBD11 or VCDS this way. Most people tuning our cars already have a Cobb AP, so in this way you can adjust your WG without buying anything else or asking for a friends.

Edit: One year update. Still no issues with WG at all, calibration seems to be holding nicely and haven't touched the wastegate since my initial calibration. I have also received some PMs from people thanking me for this how-to.

Edit 2: Multi-year update. Voltage was reading slightly high, made a small adjustment again using CobbAP. Only took a few minutes.
 
Last edited:

Jose_Gti

Autocross Newbie
Location
Philadelphia
Good score! I’ll have to do it soon too on my Is38.
I’m planning on adjusting the wastegate out of the car with the voltmeter but never know if it’s going to act up once in the car.
Enjoy !
 

PerceivedShift

Autocross Champion
Location
Virginia
Good score! I’ll have to do it soon too on my Is38.
I’m planning on adjusting the wastegate out of the car with the voltmeter but never know if it’s going to act up once in the car.
Enjoy !
I adjusted the WG on the bench with a meter and supplied 5v to the WG, had 3.6v closed voltage, didn't think I'd need to touch it once on the car. Once on the car it was all out of whack, nothing loosened so who knows why it then showed 2.6v at idle. Though honestly I did the above in about 10 minutes, I just remember thinking "well shit, that was fast". Having a small 10mm helps with the nut as a longer 10mm wrench will hit the drain lines so be sure to have that handy.
 

Jose_Gti

Autocross Newbie
Location
Philadelphia
I adjusted the WG on the bench with a meter and supplied 5v to the WG, had 3.6v closed voltage, didn't think I'd need to touch it once on the car. Once on the car it was all out of whack, nothing loosened so who knows why it then showed 2.6v at idle. Though honestly I did the above in about 10 minutes, I just remember thinking "well shit, that was fast". Having a small 10mm helps with the nut as a longer 10mm wrench will hit the drain lines so be sure to have that handy.
Thanks for the info, I'm using this diagram from EVERYTHING cpo (@Vaarticus; @go.fast.r) I'll report back with wins and fails.
1647097554838.png
 

aysmen

New member
Location
Romania
Car(s)
Audi A3
Hello, i have a 1.8 TFSI CJSA GEN 3, so i think IS20 or I12 turbo.If i want to adjust actuator Voltage(P2563 error sometimes and voltage is 4.4 V) i can adjust the rod with the Ignition ON and VCDS connected to see the value in real time?or i need to adjust with IGNITION OFF , and after that IGNITION ON, connect VCDS, read value and repeat this steps until i reach a good V?
I understood on IS12 turbo the process is different then IS38?as i understood i can not see the realvalue datas when move the rod?to see i need after adjustment make a basic settings and after IGNITION OFF/ON to read the voltage?
 

Diggs24

Autocross Champion
Location
de plains! de plains!
Car(s)
2015 GTI
Hello, i have a 1.8 TFSI CJSA GEN 3, so i think IS20 or I12 turbo.If i want to adjust actuator Voltage(P2563 error sometimes and voltage is 4.4 V) i can adjust the rod with the Ignition ON and VCDS connected to see the value in real time?or i need to adjust with IGNITION OFF , and after that IGNITION ON, connect VCDS, read value and repeat this steps until i reach a good V?
I understood on IS12 turbo the process is different then IS38?as i understood i can not see the realvalue datas when move the rod?to see i need after adjustment make a basic settings and after IGNITION OFF/ON to read the voltage?
Since vwvortex sucks ass.

https://flic.kr/p/Tz7cfL
 

Giuseppe Busso

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Greece
Car(s)
Seat Leon mk3 1.8 FR
Hello, i have a 1.8 TFSI CJSA GEN 3, so i think IS20 or I12 turbo.If i want to adjust actuator Voltage(P2563 error sometimes and voltage is 4.4 V) i can adjust the rod with the Ignition ON and VCDS connected to see the value in real time?or i need to adjust with IGNITION OFF , and after that IGNITION ON, connect VCDS, read value and repeat this steps until i reach a good V?
I understood on IS12 turbo the process is different then IS38?as i understood i can not see the realvalue datas when move the rod?to see i need after adjustment make a basic settings and after IGNITION OFF/ON to read the voltage?

1.8 CJSA has IHI-IS12 turbo.
 
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